[Cameron (Cameron-Micka)]

Overview

One feature a few users have asked for is "custom directional lighting" especially for UI. Normally this is done with light masks. In URP light masks are cheaper than multiple passes, but looping though all available lights is expensive for mobile stereo devices.

As an alternative a custom directional light (DistantLight) behavior has been made that can be used rather than the default Unity directional light. The shader GUI allows the user to choose if they want to use the current Unity directional light or custom distant light:

A DistantLight can be used as a replacement for a Unity DirectionalLight. The main purpose of DistantLights is to recreate important light sources for environments, i.e. the sun or moon. Unity's DirectionalLight is still the default for all new materials.

Example of two spheres, one being lit by a red Unity DirectionalLight and another being lit by a blue DistantLight:

Note, one DistantLight is currently supported alongside the Unity DirectionalLight.

Other improvements include:

• A new base light type shared amount DistantLight, HoverLight , ProximityLight to remove duplicate implementation
• Light gizmos now use handles for better editor functionality
• Fixed a bug in the camera controller which could cause the camera to fly off into infinity (and beyond!)

Changes

• Fixes: Support light masks #11 and Better handling of excess proximity lights #15

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[Martin Wettig (Species521)]

I tried my best to break it, but it works flawlessly. Also DIstantLights and DirectionalLights with similar settings are completely indistinguishable.

As expected it integrates well in Unity's object menu and with the other light types, this is a real improvement.
From the artistic perspective this is great, you shall pass :-)

At some point it would be nice to see a detailed performance comparison, but that might be a separate point in the docs later.